Prime Minister's Office
English rendering of the text of PMs speech on Dedication of multiple development projects in Bharuch, Gujarat 07 March, 2017
Yesterday I was near mother Ganges, today I’m with mother Narmada; yesterday I was in Bnaras, today I’m in Bharuch. Bnaras is the prehistoric city of India and Bharuch is an ancient city of Gujarat.
Brothers and sisters, first of all I offer my heartfelt respect to Shri Nitin Gadkari Ji and his entire team and also to the government of Gujarat. The world might not understand the importance of construction of this bridge but Bharuch knows the pain of not having a bridge. They regularly suffered due to this reason. When you suffered so many problems that even Ambulance used to stuck for hours and when you get this facility then the people of Gujarat can very well feel its importance. Brothers and sisters, construction of this bridge was not the problem of Bharuch and Ankaleshwar alone, this was a situation that troubled everyone in the West India.
I fought for this thing during my entire tenure as the chief minister. But when I got the opportunity to serve then this bridge was constructed within the stipulated time using the latest technology, this is the first time such a long bridge has been constructed using this technology, and it is constructed on the banks of mother Narmada.
Nitin Ji took upon this thing on himself with a determined mind; he regularly followed it up; the entire team of his department was making effort to get the result. And becomes of all that today we are able to inaugurate the bridge.
Recently, I was in Uttar Pradesh. People used to show me some Structures plaques when I used to visit different areas during the election campaign. What were those Structures? Someone would point at a that pillar located at a distance and would tell me , that pillar was part of a bridge, the foundation stone for which was laid 15 years ago. Only two pillars had been erected by then and the work did not progress thereafter. A thirteen year old unfinished structure is still there in Kashi. I told them that it would have been better if the work was handed over to Government of India, I would have completed that. Generally, it used to take anywhere between 10 to 15 years to complete this kind of work in the country. Today we have been working in the direction of implementing the work culture of Gujarat of finishing the work in the stipulated time in the entire country.
Brothers and sisters, today, I was fortunate to visit Dahej. Dahej is not only a jewel for Bharuch; now it is a jewel for the entire country. When it will be fully developed, and the pace at which it is being developed, it will be able to provide of providing employment to nearly 8 lakh people. You just imagine about such a massive employment opportunity being created in this region. You can very well think of the future of this area. And you are fully aware that I used to visit Dahej on a regular basis. I’m familiar with every nook and corner of Dahej. I saw myself the growth of Dahej.
Brothers and sisters, when PCPR, DHEJ, OPAL are on their way to being completed then it is going to provide a new strength to the economy of the country. And this is happening on the land of Bharuch. My congratulations to you.
I want to Congratulate the chief minister, because when I was chief minister here then the Bus Port was just a concept and I used to think if a rich person goes to an airport, if a person travels by a plane then he gets all the facilities. He gets air-conditioned environment, he gets cold drinking water, he gets to eat whatever he likes Is it not the right of a poor person of my country to get all these facilities? Should all these facilities be provided only to air travelers? This thing always agitated my mind.
As a result of that, the first Bus Port was developed at Baror in Baroda using the PPP Model Such a Bus Port was built that people from all over the world used to watch its video on YouTube and wondered whether such a bus stand could really be built! And the poorest of the poor travels in bus. The poorest of the poor travels in the bus with his hand luggage. He smokes Bidi and can throws the butt anywhere. Today, one can go and see a visit that completely neat and clean bus stand in Baroda and on the same lines another bus stand has been was constructed in Ahmedabad. I believe that four such bus stands have been developed so far and I’m happy that the state government is going to construct such a magnificent bus stand in Bharuch by taking that scheme forward.
Just imagine that the entire road from Bharuch to Sardar Sarovar Dam, this stretch of nearly 125 to 150 kilometers would be completely filled with water; what a pleasant sight it will be! If the water is filled in the entire area then the area of nearly 150 kilometers, either sides up to twenty kilometers will be full of water.
When I was chief minister even then this thing was discussed. One Mr. Ramesh used to be our MLA here. Even then the problem of potable water was discussed here.
I can clearly imagine the scene when the world’s tallest statue, the statue of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, the Statue of Unity will be constructed. The travelers from all over the world will come. A very good road up to Kewadia Koran is being constructed by the department headed by our Nitin Ji. I have asked Nitin Ji to explore about one more possibility, so that it can be rehearsed from now, if we can construct a pier at Bhadbooj, and if there is enough water in Narmada then we have to see whether we can bring tourists to Sardar Sarovar Dam in small steamers?
In Goa, if people want to celebrate their birthday, they go out into the ocean using small steamers to celebrate. In this area, if the people from Surat want to celebrate their birthday then they can come here; I believe people from Bharuch will certainly come here.
Brothers and sisters, what a big change can be brought about by one system alone. If the vision is clear, if the intention is right and the policies are perfect, then no obstacle can stop the progress. Brothers and sisters, success will be achieved under any circumstances.
Today when I have come to Gujarat and Nitin Ji is also present here then he wants me to make an announcement on behalf of his department. The credit goes to Nitin Ji even if the announcement is made by me. This is the result of his imagination and his ability to take bold decisions. It’s natural that I’m very happy about the decisions taken by his department. They have decided to convert the eight highways of Gujarat into national highways.
This will require an investment of nearly 12 thousand crore rupees, 12,000 crore rupees, Nitin Ji’s department alone will invest 12 thousand crore rupees on these 8 highways. It will completely transform the infrastructure of Gujarat. Brothers and sisters, it will give a fillip add feathers to Gujarat’s infrastructure. And the total length of these 8 highways is nearly 12 hundred kilometers. The state highway covering Una, Dhari, Bagsara, Amreli, Babara, Jasdan to Chotila, the entire stretch of the state highway will be converted into national highway.
Second, the state highway of Nagesari to Khamba to Chalala to Amreli will be converted into national highway. Porbandar-Bhanwad-Jam-Jodhpur-Talawad state highway will be converted into national highway. And Anand-Kathwal-Kaparwanch-Payad-Dhansura-Modhasa state highway will be converted into national highway. The entire tribal belt is going to get the maximum benefit from this decision. We need to develop Lakhpan and Katch, we need to develop Dholavira. we need to develop tourism.
Lakhpat, Gadhooli, Hajipur, Khavada, Dhaulvira, Mauvana, Sankalpur; you may call it the way to secure Indian border or development of tourism in Katch, Dholavira which is an ancient and recognized city of human culture, it’s 5,000 year old and it’s located in an isolated region, but when it will become the centre point then it will attract tourists from all over the world; that will benefit Gujarat.
Khambhalia, Adwana, Porbandar; Chittaudha, Rapar, Dhaulvira; Khambhalia, Vanvadh, Ranava; you think of the employment opportunities that will be generated due to infrastructure creation, due to spending so much money, it is bound to happen. However, the biggest benefit of it will be that it will reduce the number of accidents by changing the design of the road. Our youths drive bike, they drive fast, accidents take place, millions of people die sudden death due to accidents; it will control that. In a way, the work also has humanitarian angle.
You may recall, in Ahmedabad, Rajkot and Bagodara; there was not a single day when there was no accident near Bagodara. People used to die at night. It was happening daily. When Keshubhai Patel became chief minister, he used to see this kind of accidents daily. He used to travel from Rajkot. Many senior leader of our party also died in road accidents on Ahmedabad-Rajkot Highway. Then I was in Ahmedabad, though I was not in politics but on an average I used to receive calls almost daily that a tragic accident had taken place that day. Ahmedabad-Rajkot was converted to four lanes and it significantly brought down the number of accident.
This national network, in a way, from the point of view of security and also from the point of view of humanity is a big facility that is being developed. We have changed the model for roads under which all the facilities are available on the road, helipads should be developed near roads, facilities for food and toilets, all these facilities should be available near the roads.
People travel on a daily basis and they need all these facilities including washrooms. In order to construct national highways that have all these facilities, highways that are moden, Nitin Ji is busy in doing this work with his novel ideas.
Look at Sagarmala Project. See, now there is Such a government in Delhi that does not think in isolation. We think in terms of solving the problems. We have prepared Sagarmala Project and under this project the entire map of India, as it is drawn, should be fully connected with infrastructure. The roads should not be disconnected anywhere. If one starts from one corner then he should be able to come back by the same road after visiting the entire India. We are creating a Sagarmala Project and a Bharatmala Project. Road network will be developed under the Bharatmala project and infrastructure in coastal areas will be developed under the Sagarmala Project. Bharatmala and Sagarmala will give a new strength to port and land development. And for this, we are going forward in the direction to invest more than 8 lakh crore rupees in the port sector alone under the Sagarmala Project. And it will be specially beneficial for the country, it will benefit the ports of Gujarat. All the roads, rails connected to the ports will get its advantages.
We have implemented Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayi Yojana. You would be surprised to know that we had this kind of governments in our country that constructed the dams but did not prepare a project to supply the water from dam. Dams were constructed 20 years ago. They are full of waters, but there are no canals. I’ve searched all such cases and prepared Irrigation Scheme called pradhanmantri krishi sinchai Yojona with a budget of Rs. 90 thousand crore to supply water from the dams to drip, it means drip irrigation, 90 thousand crore rupees have been provided for creating the entire chain from dams to drips, to restart the unfinished projects, to provide water to farmers.
The country must become modern. We can’t lead the life as per the ancient time. We wont’t be able to compete with the twenty-first century world by remaining in the twentieth century. If we want to compete with the twenty-first century world then we will have to take ourselves to the twenty-first century. Brothers and sisters, see that now India has joined the race to compete with the world. Now, in our home, we are not those who waste time in pointing fingers at each other we are busy in securing space for India in the world. And for this we also need to develop India to meet the requirements of the 21st century, for that we also require I-ways as much as we require highways. I-ways means Information Ways. A network of optical fiber in the entire country. See when bridges are constructed, there are some people who look for the opportunities to take credit for tha. Let them say anything to take the credit, to take advantage without doing anything.
Brothers and sisters, the optical fiber network project was created by the previous government. The scheme had a target of laying the optical fiber network in 1.25 lakh villages at about the same time when I became the Prime Minister. It’s recorded in their files. The previous government had made the scheme to lay optical fiber in 1.25 lakh villages by March 2014. When I became the Prime Minister. I asked them, out of the targeted 1.25 lakh villages, how many have been completed ? Any idea how many villages would have been covered of the target of 1.25 lakh villages? How many? Someone would say 1 lakh, some other will think 50 thousand and when I conducted the assessment, then by that time only 59 villages, fifty and nine; not event sixty. Optical fiber was laid in only 59 villages.
That was the style of working then, now we have taken the task upon all the ourselves. The optical fiber network was to be laid in 2.5 lakh village panchayats of the country and the fiber has already been in 68 thousand villages. On the one hand 59 villages and on the other 68 thousand. Brothers and sisters, this is the difference. If the intention is right, if the intention is the welfare of people then there will never be obstacles in your work. People also cooperate, work takes place and the country moves forward.
Gas pipelines, optical fiber network, water supply system. We have a dream for the year 2022, when India will complete 75 years of its independence. The poorest of the poor should have his own house by then and we are working in that direction. Smaller countries of the world are wondering that so many houses needs to be built. It will be like building a new small nation within the country; But brothers and sisters, we will realize this dream as well, we have been working on that.
You can imagine what kind of country is this! Every country should have its own accounting system, its own information. The country must know what it has and what it doesn’t have, is it not? When I became Prime Minister, I chaired a meeting during the early days and I asked about how many islands India has. I used to ask how many islands we had like we have Alia Bet and Beyt Dwarka.
Different departments used to give different figure someone used to say 900, some other said 800, some other said 600 and someone even said 1,000. I wondered to myself that what kind of government it was! Somebody says this many, someone else says that many islands. It means, there is something wrong. Then I got to know that no one knows exactly had conducted a scientific study. No one how many islands India has? What were the unique things about them and how these could be used in taking the country forward? I was surprised that they had no information. I constituted a team, used satellite technology and we created an entire map of them. India has more than 1,300 islands and some of them are even bigger than Singapore. We can develop our islands: they can be provided a range of thing, we can do a lot for the development of tourism in our islands. Government of India has created a separate system for this and we have identified 200 islands from those islands that are located near Indian coast. In the initial stage a model for the development of those 200 islands is being prepared. Brothers and sisters, if this kind of things are developed in our country then do we need to go to Singapore? Everything can be done in my country. Our country is capable, our country is strong, we can also scale new heights of development. And that is why, brothers and sisters, as Nitin Ji told just a while ago that earlier, if we calculate the roads built anywhere in the entire country, then on an average two kilometers of roads used to be constructed in a day. Before our government it was two kilometers a day.
Nitin Ji pushed forward it in such a manner, as he just told you, that today we construct 22 kilometers long roads in a day, 11 times more work is done. Brothers and sisters, earlier gauge conversion of 1,500 kilometers long railway track was done in a year.
It’s such a big country, and there is a demand for trains but the country was not able to go beyond that. When we came to power, we vowed to change that and today I’m happy that we are able to do twice as much in terms of railway lines, it’s just double, 3,000 kilometers. If we have an intention to do something, as you have seen the work of Bus Port, after taking a cue from this work I held a meeting with railway officials. I told them that our railway stations, are in a very bad shape. These are of 19th century, can we bring about some changes in them or not?
We have taken upon the task of development of railways. We need to develop 500 stations in India. We have selected two stations from Gujarat in the initial stage – Surat and Gandhi Nagar. Why not make all our railway stations multistoried in the coming days? There can be a theat or a mall in a railway station. There can be recreation centres in railway stations; there can be food courts as well. Trains will continue to move on the tracks but other areas must be developed. Brothers and sisters, we must have the vision for development. There must be dreams; there must be determination and we also need capability; then success automatically follows. We have been moving forward with those tasks.
My dear brothers and sisters of Bharuch, today we have executed a huge work big thing on the banks of mother Narmada. Please join me with full force in saying this:
I will say: Narmade, and you will say Sarvade with a clenched fist and by raising your hands.
Narmade – Sarvade.
Narmade – Sarvade.
Narmade – Sarvade.
Narmade – Sarvade.
Narmade – Sarvade.
Thank you very much.